“Mama, is it Deep Creek time yet?” Alethea asked me yesterday.
While it has been a glorious winter with so much snow, after the super warm day we had on Wednesday, I think we’re all ready for it to be Deep Creek time! My brother and my youngest sister have been making day trips to Deep Creek all winter to spend time with friends and a special someone. 😉 The constant updates on the snow and ice, and the photos they bring back each time really have us on pins and needles to get back this year! We’ve still got about a month or so before that happens. So until then, I am trying to keep things at home as exciting as possible.
This week was so fun! On Saturday, I had my first photo session of the year! It was a wonderful one. It felt SO GOOD to be back at it! I photographed the family who won my winter wonderland photo session back in December! There was so much snow at Oak Hollow Park in North Huntingdon. It was absolutely perfect! I’ll be posting the highlights from that session on the blog on Monday!
We celebrated my sister Emma’s birthday on Sunday after church. Emma had a really rough start to the year. About a month ago, she ended up in the hospital with a ruptured appendix and other complications as a result. She’s had a long recovery and we are so glad that she is doing well and is pretty much back to normal now!
Most Sundays, after we finish lunch and the kids begin to play, us “older kids” bust out the games! We’ve learned so many new games in the past year, and it has been something to look forward to each week. This week, we played a card game called “Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza” which is a painful game where you have to nearly break your hand to win. We also played boggle. Boggle is a real struggle sometimes with our family. We have a lot of challenges as to whether or not a word is legit. In my case, even if it doesn’t mean what I think it means, it’s usually a real word. Jonathan can’t stand that. Haha. We’re quite competitive if you haven’t figured that out.
Layla has really started walking in the last two weeks! She’s taken up to ten steps at a time now! She could probably go further, but she usually encounters an obstacle on the floor and drops pretty fast. If she’s holding your hands though, she could walk infinitely. That’s something Alethea never did! She never wanted help. Hmm…I guess she’s always been that way. That’s one of her most used phrases “I want to do it MYSELF!” Interesting.
Naptime has been fun this week. Alethea hasn’t taken a nap for a few months. When she began to be so cranky at dinner time, and just cry the entire evening, we started keeping her up. And it was like a different world! She was happy all the time!
However, this week, she actually fell asleep on her own several times in the afternoon. It has led to crankiness several times, but I really think she needs to catch up on sleep as much as I do.
We went to Oak Hollow Park to fly kites and play on the playground on Wednesday! A lot of the snow had melted, but there was still tons of snow on the sledding hill! It was a BEAUTIFUL day! It got up into the 60’s and we had a blast! We spent two hours there. We could’ve spent more, but it was Layla’s naptime and the clouds were starting to bring the rain.
3 of my sister’s came with us, and my niece and nephew. The last time I flew a kite was right before Alethea was born. Just about 3 years ago! Ruby and I had so much fun flying them together again, though we had significant trouble with our fish kite! It worked so well when we flew it three years ago, but this year, it wouldn’t stay up at all. It kept nose diving into the ground, always to the right side. Well after trying to fly it for an hour and a half, attempting to diagnose the problem, we finally figured out that there was a piece of tape stuck to the string where it attaches to the kite. It was throwing it all off once it got up into the air. After we removed the tape and reattached the string, it flew beautifully for our last 15 minutes. I’m quite sure we’ll laugh about that forever. I’m also pretty sure there’s a big spiritual life lesson in there!
In case you were wondering if it’s easy to take my kids photos…it’s not. Phone camera’s don’t have very fast “shutter speeds.” I’m learning to embrace the blur at this stage in our lives.
Also…what is that face, Layla?
On Thursday, I took the girls to Target for the first time together since Layla was just a few months old. I used to go to Target every week, sometimes more than once. But for the last year or so, I have only gone when I actually needed something. (I guess I could need something all the time though right? Haha…)
We got a few things we needed, (and probably a few things we didn’t…) and we even snagged a new large unicorn kite for a few bucks. I’m a deal shopper, and I pretty much only buy things if they’re on clearance or a good sale deal. Why pay full price when it’ll be half off next month? That’s my theory anyways. 😉
I let the girls ride in the kids cart together and they had an absolute blast! Though that thing is so hard to steer! They should make you go through kids cart training before they let you take one. Haha. I may have hit a few displays along the way…oops.
Layla laughed almost the entire time we were in the store! She thought it was so much fun. Pretty much everyone in Target stopped to say how adorable they were.
I’ve been planning Layla’s birthday party this week. I can’t believe she’ll be one in just two weeks! This last year has flown by, and I am so grateful for the Lord’s grace in our lives, in giving her to us on day one of the state shut down. This year has shown me why the Lord impressed upon my heart to give her the middle name Grace. I didn’t understand it at first, but I hope as she grows older, I can tell her of God’s grace in our lives in her first year on earth.
That’s all for now! Hope you have had a wonderful week!
Love Deeply. Live Passionately.
Ellen
